one step: Matthew 23.1

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger…”

Though Jesus previously took time to sober the Pharisees, in this passage, Jesus intends less to tear down the scribes and Pharisees and more to warn Christians of common pitfalls to the Christian life.*

It’s easy as Christians to see and label others as not good enough. The Pharisees carried the burden of teaching the things of Moses, and, as Jesus pointed out, failed to apply this teaching to their own lives.*

I fear that my ability to see the lack in other’s lives cries out in testimony against my inability to see the lack in my own life. I must admit that the words I teach those around me supply a standard that I also fail to achieve.

In the leadership buzz of our generation, good leaders are described as people who go first, not asking those that follow them to do what they are not willing to do themselves. Jesus would support this idea in this situation. The Pharisees should have gone first in living out the life that they demanded that others live.

Christ invites each of us to live a life empowered by the Spirit. He lived this life first, and He invites us to follow Him. He does not burden us in the same way that the Pharisees did. Jesus invites us to, “come and follow Me.”

What if we invited those we see struggling to follow us as we follow Christ rather than demanding that they try harder? What if we invited them into conversation rather than sitting on the sideline in silent criticism?

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to live what you have been preaching. Perhaps God wants you to extend grace to others as He knows that you need grace extended to you. Maybe He would have you see the areas of your life that need improvement. Perhaps today He wants you to follow Him down the path of a new way.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 568–574, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 23:1–4).) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 22.5

“If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Having endured unscathed the onslaught of questions from the Sadducees and Pharisees, Jesus ends the session of questions with a question of His own regarding the nature of the Messiah in relationship to King David.

Without context, Jesus’ question may seem to be about about timeline, but it’s actually about hierarchy. In the time of Jesus, the general sentiment was that the best of times had come and gone in the first Golden Age. This generally accepted belief meant that every subsequent year was expected to be worse than the first.* Moreover, in Jewish culture, sons could not be greater than their fathers. Therefore, anyone in the line of David who came after him could not be greater than him.*

This framed the predicament of Psalm 110 when King David refers to the Messiah as Lord. To refer to the Messiah would not be strange, as David himself played the role of a messiah to the people of Israel. With the historical context we have, we see that David calling someone who came later in history and further down his line Lord would fly against the cultural understanding. In this moment, Jesus exposes yet another misunderstanding of the Pharisees and Sadducees of the Messiah, His purpose, and His nature.

The coming Messiah came as the Suffering Servant, not as a warring king like David, yet the Messiah was greater.

How many of us have prayed, tried, and failed to be better than the leaders or parents before us? How many of us have vowed that we would be or do better? How often have we looked at our culture and thought, “the best of times is in the past?”

Jesus comes as a reminder, that with the power of the Holy Spirit, cultural norms, generational issues and beliefs, and expectations fall away in the wake of the purpose of God.

God has a purpose for your life. You may not understand all that Jesus wants to do in your life, but rest assured of this: He isn’t limited by our understanding.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to reject some of the lies you have believed about your situation or destiny. Perhaps God wants you to set aside your expectations of Christ and allow Jesus the Messiah to work His way in your life. Maybe God wants you to hear Him speak to you about your family or past leadership and how it impacts your behaviors.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 564–567, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 22:41–46).) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 22.4

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

How many laws can you keep? How many have you broken? Did you know it when you broke the law?

When the Pharisee in this passage (who was a lawyer) came to Jesus with the question, “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” he was testing Jesus with a very difficult question. The rabbis found 613 commands in the Law. Of those, they were ranked as either weighty or less weighty with the understanding that all should be honored and carried out as the commands of God.* Asking which was the greatest would no doubt upset someone as much argument existed around this commonly asked question.*

Jesus draws from arguments and techniques of the time, combining two verses that started with the same Hebrew word, and citing the Shema. What was unique in Jesus’ argument was His authority to state that in loving God and loving one’s neighbor the entire Law was fulfilled. Jesus went further than this, however, even saying that the commands of the prophets were fulfilled in this as well.*

Maintaining the importance of all commands, Jesus does not do away with them, but introduces a profound implementation and application of love that fuels the proper practice of and understanding of the Law. According to Jesus, to earn right standing with God through performance misses the point. According to Jesus, to view the commands without seeing love as their motivation misses the point.*

If we love God, we will obey His commands; if we know that He is love, we will see that His commands are for us out of love. If we love our neighbors as ourself, we testify that we love God as well.

Growing up, I endured what felt to me to be a lot of rejection. I experienced rejection from other kids that felt unfair, and I couldn’t understand it. I felt rejection from members of my family. I felt rejection from coaches in the sport I loved. I seemed to find rejection everywhere I turned. In an effort to stop being rejected, I put up some severe walls to protect myself. Thus, I began rejecting others before they could reject me. I slowly hated people. I am ashamed to confess that the words, “I hate people,” escaped my lips with conviction.

Maybe it was all of this rejection and a painful desire to be accepted, but I began attempting to obey every rule I could find in order to please and be accepted by God. Fearing His rejection, and imagining that I was rejected by Him every time I messed up, I was a wreck.

This kind of life of performance is not what Jesus has in mind for you or for me. I had to come to understand that God loved me while knowing that I wasn’t good enough. I had to receive His acceptance in order to begin to heal my rejected heart. From this place of love, I began to experience the awakening of my soul to love others again.

Today, I’m not perfect. I mess up a lot. I judge. I overlook. I forget. I criticize. I stumble. God still loves me. I still love Him. And I love people so much it hurts. Jesus did this for me. Jesus did this in me.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to invite Him to heal the hurt places in your heart. Maybe God wants you to finally stop trying to earn His love and acceptance. Perhaps He wants you to receive His love today in a profound and honest way. Maybe God wants you to love your neighbor as yourself. Maybe God wants you to love yourself because He loves you.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 561–564, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 22:34–40).) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 22.3

You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.

The Sadducees and Pharisees approached Scripture very differently. The Pharisees taught Scripture as God’s Word, but they added a very large oral tradition to help interpret, understand, and apply Scripture. Sadducees wanted nothing to do with this; they chose to rely solely on Scripture.* This made debate amongst themselves and against Jesus very different. Throughout Matthew, we see Jesus in debate with Pharisees destroy traditions while maintaining Scripture and God’s will.

His approach against the Sadducees in this passage was different. To tell the Sadducees that they did not know Scripture was a very shocking and bold statement. What Jesus meant by this however, is that they did not understand Scripture. It’s one thing to know the words of Scripture and even quote it. It’s an entirely other thing to understand Scripture in a way that it is lived and incorporated into daily life.*

The Sadducees did not know God’s power because they did not acknowledge His omnipotent ability to do as He pleased, including and not limited to raising the dead.

How often do we look at the things that God called us to and think that because they look dead or are dead that God is finished? How often do we read Scripture or recite memorized Scripture and faith to understand it in a way that impacts our lives? I’m guilty of this.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to acknowledge His ability to do anything. Perhaps God wants to raise something from the dead, or maybe He wants you to take a step today to believe that He can if He wants to. Maybe today God wants you to begin to live the truth in His Word in some area of your life.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 558–562, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 22:23–33).) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).

one step: Matthew 22.2

Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?

The answer to this simple question set up Jesus to either undermine Himself before those who was Him as Messiah or threaten the Roman empire in a way that would have been viewed as treasonous. In the minds of the Pharisees, they had just set Jesus up for a lose-lose game.

How often in life do we look at a situation and it feels like we only have two choices, and neither one is good? With the waiting expectations of others, time feels like a wave unkindly pushing us toward decision.

In the case of Jesus, He takes a third option. Many times in life, the enemy comes to us and presents two options for us to choose from. Neither one are good, but we feel the expectations of others and time ticking as a pressure to decide. God always has another way.

The question of the Pharisees was especially interesting because the tax of Caesar was a poll tax.* This tax, unlike others, benefited the payee in no way. For example, customs duties at least got the payee the right to bring goods to a destination. The very unpopular poll tax was viewed as a tax that was just giving money away, benefitting the emperor and no one else.* The Pharisees were not just asking about taxes in general, but if they should pay a tax that no one liked, benefitted no one, and might have been viewed as unjust.

For Jesus to say, “no,” He would be inciting the kind of rebellion that surfaced violently two decades earlier.* For Jesus to say, “yes,” He would be supporting taxes to Rome, undermining His popular messianic support.*

Jesus profoundly offers that the image on the coin denotes who the coin belongs to.

Who’s image is imprinted on us? God’s image is imprinted upon mankind. How much more should we give ourselves to God?

In one simple answer, Jesus satisfied the question, kept the balance between the Pharisees and the Roman empire, and pointed people to worship God fully. The disciples of the Pharisees were in awe.

Today, take a step.

Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to listen to Him for the third option in your life. Perhaps there is some part of your life that you have not surrendered to Him, and today He is asking you to. Maybe there are practical responsibilities in your life that need attention and God says that today is the day to worship Him through doing what needs to be done in your community.

Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.

Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.

Feel free to comment at the bottom of this page! We would love to hear from you!

*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 553–558, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 22:15–22).) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).